Tron
was an arcade game
distributed by Bally
Midway in 1982. We
loved to play this
game back in the
day, and one quarter
would last a while
if you were the
least bit good at
it. The game was
based on the Disney
movie by the same
name, and became
very popular. There
were four main game
levels that would
repeat and increase
in difficulty if the
player continued to
advance. In the
first level, the
player had to shoot
spider like “Grid
Bugs” in order to
clear a path to the
center of the
Input/Output Tower
(before time ran
out). The second
level was an MCP
cone, where the
player had to shoot
a number of bricks
(like Breakout) and
get inside the
cone. The third
level, the Battle
Tanks, was not
necessarily inspired
by the film, as it
featured the player
as a tank, driving
through a maze,
battle enemy tanks
(in later stages,
the tanks become
floating vehicles
call
“Recognizers”). The
fourth level, Light
Cycles, is the most
recognizable level
from the movie. In
this level, the
player drives a
Light Cycle in an
arena in an effort
to cut off, and
destroy, enemy light
cycles.

Many
of you will remember
the 1983 sequel to
Tron, called Discs
of Tron. Over the
years, there have
been a number of
spin-off games
released for both
the old school home
arcade (Tron: Deadly
Discs for the Atari
2600), but also for
new systems like the
Gameboy and Xbox (Tron
2.0 Killer App, Tron:
Evolution).